Custom made for public?

Minister has plan for iconic building

HOUSING Minister Eoghan Murphy wants Dublin’s historic Custom House to be open to the public as a ‘cultural space’.

As part of a proposed masterplan for the building, Minister Murphy has said its grounds should be opened up to the public.

The neoclassical 18th-century building is home to the Department of Housing, but there have been calls in the past to allow the public greater access. A departmental report has floated the possibility of the central area of the building being redeveloped as a ‘public cultural space’.

Mr Murphy approved a plan to go ahead with a cost-benefit analysis project for the building, which is often considered the masterpiece of architect James Gandon.

Giving his approval for this costbenefit analysis, the Fine Gael TD wrote: ‘Approved on the basis that renewal will include an opening of the grounds to the public as part of enhancing the provision of public space generally.’

He said that any tender ‘must make reference’ to opening up the Custom House complex to everybody, in a submission signed off last November. A development options paper said the building has many ‘constraints, deficiencies and weaknesses’.

Dating from the 1790s, Custom House was set alight during the War of Independence in 1921.

The report said: ‘Following the fire, the central area was not reconstructed to its original form, and different areas have been the subject of various ad-hoc changes, small-scale works, improvements, adaptations, and enhancements down the years.’

However, it added that ‘many of the improvements that were made in the 1980s and 1990s are reaching the end of their life cycle’.